This weather was not fit for man nor beast nor No.2-ranked golfer in the world.

For everybody else, the wind and rain were tough to endure in Saturday’s third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. But for Jim Furyk and the rest of those deeply unfortunate few groups stuck out on Pebble after 2p.m., when the weather turned angry, it was pure hell.

Curious what Furyk looks like playing under water? A few of us got the chance to see toward 4p.m., though we probably did not look so graceful ourselves amid the sideways rain, blinding wind and chattering teeth.

“The last three (holes) were miserable,” Furyk said of his torrential third round at Pebble Beach, “the last six were really tough and the first 12 were hard.”

Pebble played more than three shots harder than Spyglass Hill, almost four shots harder than Poppy Hills and prob
The end result for Furyk: a 4-over-par 76, which was understandable given the torturous conditions but still knocked him down to a tie for sixth place after starting the day tied for first.

The round, as Furyk noted with anguish, also took 6 hours, 40 minutes, which is a long time in the sunshine but nearly unbearable when aqua gear is required to survive. His group had a 25-minute wait on the 18th tee, which is one of the most beautiful places on earth except when it’s one of the coldest.

“It’s blowing, it’s windy, it’s cold and it just kind of picked up,” Furyk said. “So it may be a little bit of a tough day to be at Pebble. Definitely a tough day to have a late tee time at Pebble.”

Tournament co-leader Phil Mickelson took advantage of relatively docile conditions at Pebble on Friday by shooting 67, and he followed up with a solid 70 Saturday at Spyglass, which was not as buffeted by the weather.

Corey Pavin teed off at Pebble almost two hours before Furyk on Saturday, caught some decent weather, and shot a spectacular 67, vaulting him into a tie for fourth.

“Was he playing earlier today?” Furyk said when told about Pavin’s round. “A little earlier would help. But I don’t care when he played. Five under at Pebble Beach today is a great round. He’s the kind of guy who can do it – he can hit a lot of shots. Because of his shot-making ability, he can get it around in conditions like this.”

Pavin said that, even with his early time, he thought these were the fiercest conditions he has ever endured at Pebble, and he’s no rookie here. When Pavin finished, five groups, including Furyk’s, were only just getting to the back nine. “That’s going to be brutal,” Pavin said.

Furyk was rolling along at par for the round until he got to the long, par-4 10th, which played as the second-toughest hole in the tournament Saturday. (No.9 at Pebble, also a long par-4 into the wind, was the toughest.)

Furyk had to hit 3-wood from the fairway to try to make the green, pushed his shot over the cliff short and right, and had to drop when his ball was unplayable down by the beach. He ended up with double-bogey, and the spiral began.